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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24243427">It's Nice to Have a Friend</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliciameade/pseuds/aliciameade'>aliciameade</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pitch Perfect (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - High School, Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Canon Rewrite, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Inspired by Taylor Swift, Swift Perfect Week 2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 20:27:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,666</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24243427</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliciameade/pseuds/aliciameade</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Beca still remembers the first time she met Chloe Beale. It was in the office of Eisenhower High School on her first day, not just as a freshman but in the city’s school system. She was the quintessential New Kid In Town and Chloe, the Senior Class President was the new kid's first-day chaperone.</p>
<p>Written for Swift Perfect Week 2020; each chapter's theme is drawn from one of Taylor Swift albums in chronological order beginning with her self-titled debut.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>61</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>300</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Finishedstoriesmine</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>They are short bites of chapters, I know. It's a mini-anthology. xo</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/>
<p>Beca still remembers the first time she met Chloe Beale.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was in the office of Eisenhower High School on her first day, not just as a freshman but in the city’s school system. She was the quintessential New Kid In Town following her parents’ divorce and relocating to another state with her mother. She understood why they divorced; her father had broken her mother’s perfectly good heart. However, she did <em> not </em> understand why they had to move to Florida and leave all her friends behind in Georgia.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She was picking up her class schedule and locker assignment in the school office when Chloe Beale introduced herself as Beca’s orientation escort for the day.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Hi, I’m Chloe; I’m Senior Class President. Welcome to Eisenhower!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Hey,” Beca had replied. She was too rattled to say anything else. At the time, Beca had crushes on specifically two people: Shawn from <em> Boy Meets World </em> and Kimberly, the Pink Power Ranger. The <em> senior </em> standing in front of her wearing a pretty blue dress and a bright smile with long red wavy hair offering her hand for shaking had skipped right to the front of that line. She felt like she couldn’t breathe.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I haven't seen you around, before,” Chloe said as they walked down the hall toward Beca’s first period English class.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well, I’m a freshman, so,” she muttered, battling the urge to crawl into the first open locker they pass to hide as every single student they pass seems to stare at her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Chloe’s shoulder bumped hers. “I meant in town.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Oh, um. We—I just moved here. Over the summer.” </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well, welcome to Tampa! Now, let’s look at that schedule.” Chloe snapped the paper out of Beca’s hands before she could respond. “Ooh, you’re taking AP Bio? As a Freshman? I didn’t even know you could do that.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Yeah, uh,” she shrugged, feeling wildly uncomfortable next to Chloe’s excitement, “science is kind of my thing, I guess.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You’re even in my class! I’ll make sure you get the best seat in the room.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Something about that made the hairs on the back of Beca’s neck stand on end. “And what seat would that be?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“The one next to me. Duh!”</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>To be continued</strong>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>
  <em>Fearless</em>
</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>Chloe kissed Beca for the first time on Beca’s 15th birthday. It was on her cheek while they sat on the steps of Beca’s front porch after Chloe had walked her home from school asking if she wanted to hang out. Beca hadn’t told anyone it was her birthday; she hadn’t really made any friends yet even though she’d been at Eisenhower for three months.</p><p> </p><p>Except for Chloe.</p><p> </p><p>For some reason, Chloe had insisted on escorting her around the school beyond that first day. It made Beca feel safe from the intimidating older kids because she had the popular, pretty Senior by her side. The popular, pretty senior whom, when she’d complimented Beca on her new pair of Vans sneakers when they met up for lunch, Beca had admitted they were a birthday present from her dad that she’d opened that morning.</p><p> </p><p>Chloe had stuck to her more closely than usual for the rest of the day until she was waiting by Beca’s locker after the last period of the day.</p><p> </p><p>“Can I walk the birthday girl home?” she’d asked.</p><p> </p><p>“You don’t even know how far away I live,” Beca had replied as she stuffed her homework into her bag.</p><p> </p><p>“No one drops you off in the morning, so that means you’re close enough to walk.” Chloe had smiled proudly as if she’d cracked some big code and all Beca could do was roll her eyes and try not to smile.</p><p> </p><p>“Fine.”</p><p> </p><p>She’d been self-conscious of Chloe seeing where she lived. The house her mom was renting was small. Looking back, there was nothing wrong with it. It was well-kept with a tidy lawn and cute blue shutters, but at the time, Beca had been embarrassed by it. If Chloe minded (Beca knows now that she didn’t), she didn’t let on. Instead, she’d asked Beca if she had plans for her birthday.</p><p> </p><p>Beca had said no, that she didn’t really know anyone to bother trying to have a party. Chloe had pretended to pout and pointed out that she knew Chloe and Beca had apologized profusely until Chloe gave up her fake offense and shushed her. She’d then dug through her JanSport backpack and pulled out something wrapped in what looked like the colored paper from the giant rolls in the art room.</p><p> </p><p>“You didn’t really give me enough time to go shopping,” Chloe said as she handed the small rectangle to Beca. Her name was written on top of the red paper in black marker, pretty flourishes and flowers drawn around it. “I had to improvise.”</p><p> </p><p>“You got me a present?” Beca asked as she looked at the package in her hand.</p><p> </p><p>Chloe nudged her. “Of course I did. It’s your birthday. Now go on; open it.”</p><p> </p><p>Beca had smiled and ripped the paper off. It was a book, and upside down, so she flipped it over. <em> “Romeo and Juliet?” </em></p><p> </p><p>“I stole it from Mrs. Miller’s room; don’t tell.”</p><p> </p><p>“I won’t.”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s my favorite work of Shakespeare’s,” Chloe had said, leaning closer. “Have you read it?”</p><p> </p><p>Beca shook her head. “I think we’re reading it next semester.”</p><p> </p><p>“Good. And you probably already know the story, but it’s just so romantically tragic. They loved each other so much and the world kept trying to keep them apart, for the most superficial reasons. Reasons that didn’t matter. And they just...they loved each other so much they couldn’t bear to go on living if the other was dead.”</p><p> </p><p>Beca swallowed. She knew the story; she’d seen the movie with Claire Danes. “That’s heavy.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p> </p><p>She could feel how close Chloe was to her, could see her eyes trained on the side of Beca’s face as she stared at the cover of the well-used paperback in her lap.</p><p> </p><p>“Happy Birthday, Bec,” Chloe had said, quietly, and kissed her cheek.</p><p> </p><p>It had made Beca flush furiously and stammer a multitude of excuses about needing to go inside and help her mom with dinner, or vacuuming, or whatever she had said as she scrambled to her feet and through her front door.</p><hr/><p>
  <em> <strong>To be continued</strong> </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>
  <em>Speak Now</em>
</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>Beca had never been on a date before. She didn’t even know that’s what was happening when Chloe had asked her between classes if she’d like to go see <em> Enchanted </em> on Friday until she’d accepted and Chloe had said, “Great! It’s a date!” and kissed her cheek.</p><p> </p><p>She’d spent the entirety of the evening, the following Thursday, and that Friday panicking about what she was supposed to wear, say, or do while also questioning whether Chloe meant it was a <em> date</em>-date or just that they had scheduled something to occur on a specific date.</p><p> </p><p>When Chloe picked her up and actually came to the front door to ring the doorbell instead of texting Beca from her car looking especially pretty, she was pretty sure it was a date-date.</p><p> </p><p>When Chloe bought the tickets and popcorn and then held her hand at the movie, she was even more sure.</p><p> </p><p>And when Chloe kissed her on the lips in front of her house after walking her to the door at the end of the evening, she was no longer uncertain.</p><p> </p><p>It was Beca’s first kiss and she had no idea what she was doing. She just pursed her lips and hoped it was okay. It must have been because Chloe had smiled when she pulled back and told Beca she’d had a really nice evening with her.</p><p> </p><p>Beca experienced a lot of firsts after that night.</p><p> </p><p>Her first heated make-out session on the couch in Chloe’s basement. She’d never felt that way before. Every part of her felt like it was lit up and on fire and then Chloe had asked Beca to be her girlfriend. Beca had never been anyone’s girlfriend. She’d nodded and said she hoped she wouldn’t suck at it and went back to kissing her new girlfriend.</p><p> </p><p>Her first hickey that she tried and failed to hide and ended up having a long and horribly embarrassing conversation with her mother about sex and pregnancy until she blurted out that it was from a girl.</p><p> </p><p>Her first forbidden relationship—not because Chloe was a girl but because Chloe was 17 and her mom said Beca was too young for her. She remembers sneaking out once her mom fell asleep on the couch on an unseasonably warm and humid spring night, creeping through the back yard and its gate to meet up with a giggly Chloe waiting for her. She’d snagged Beca’s hand and they’d run to the park down the street to climb to the top of the slide and sit together.</p><p> </p><p>They’d kissed and talked and Chloe told her she got accepted by a university in Georgia. She’d be moving, in a cruel irony, to Beca’s hometown of Atlanta at the end of summer. </p><p> </p><p>Beca had tried to be happy for her but she knew what it meant. It meant Chloe was leaving. Chloe had clicked into her life like a missing piece so seamlessly she could already feel herself falling apart at the very thought that Chloe would be gone after the summer.</p><p> </p><p>It was fitting that it started to rain as they walked back to Beca’s house. It was well past 2:00 AM when Chloe kissed her on the sidewalk in front of her house in the pouring rain. It had felt a lot like a goodbye.</p><p> </p><p>The real goodbye came in August. They broke up. Beca’s not really sure who did it; it felt mutual, necessary, and inevitable. It was her first relationship, but she knew enough to understand a soon-to-be 16-year-old and a college freshman with hundreds of miles between them wasn’t sustainable.</p><p> </p><p>Chloe had also turned 18. It seemed arbitrary, that one day their relationship was fine and the next, it was illegal.</p><p> </p><p>Not that they were having sex. That was a first that they hadn’t gotten to. Beca wasn’t ready and Chloe had respected that. She’d thought about it, though. She’d even Googled and read about the age of consent and something about a Romeo and Juliet law but its implications weren’t reassuring. She’d Googled a lot about how to have sex with a woman, too. <em> A lot. </em></p><p> </p><p>“You won’t forget about me?” Beca had asked through her tears.</p><p> </p><p>“How could I?” Chloe had replied through tears of her own and Beca remembers never being held so tightly in her life up to that point.</p><p> </p><p>She couldn’t believe they’d had their last kiss. They hadn’t shared nearly enough of them to never share one again.</p><p> </p><p>Beca didn’t date anyone else in high school. And not for lack of suitors; dating Chloe—the Senior Class President, the varsity football cheerleader, the captain of the fast-pitch softball team—had catapulted her to the top tier popular kids at Eisenhower High. But everyone else in school was boring. Bland. She didn’t see sparks fly when she looked at them the way they flew when she first saw Chloe.</p><p> </p><p>Even when they started to lose touch she didn’t want to date someone new. She missed Chloe and the way she could make Beca feel so happy without even trying. Just a wink or a smile and Beca’s stomach would fill with butterflies. No one else made her feel that way. She hated that they were drifting apart, but Beca had no means to travel to visit Chloe, and Chloe was busy with school and some singing group she’d joined, and when she came home that first summer, things weren’t the same.</p><p> </p><p>They felt off.</p><p> </p><p>Chloe was seeing someone she’d met in Atlanta.</p><p> </p><p>Beca started finding excuses to not spend time with Chloe when she was home visiting her family. It hurt too much to be around her and know she now looked at someone else the way she used to look at Beca. </p><p> </p><p>By the time Beca graduated from Eisenhower, they hadn’t even exchanged texts—other than Chloe wishing Beca a Happy Birthday—since Christmas. It was easier that way. She assumed it was easier for Chloe, too. Better to focus on her third year of college. On the nerdy singing group she was in. On her boyfriend or girlfriend or whoever she was seeing at any given time.</p><p> </p><p>It made it easier to pretend Beca had forgotten about Chloe.</p><p> </p><p>It made it easier to pretend Beca didn’t decide to apply to Barden University in the middle of the night the day before its application deadline despite being offered early admission to Berklee in Boston. It might be the top school in the country for what she wanted to do with her life, but Boston is just so far away from her mom in Florida. Wouldn’t it be better if she stayed closer to home? And her dad having tenure with Barden meant she got a free ride when she was going to come out of Berklee six figures in debt. And all her old friends were there. And Barden has a decent music program, right?</p><p> </p><p>It made it easier to pretend Beca didn’t enroll at Barden University to be closer to Chloe.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em> <strong>To be continued</strong> </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>
  <em>Red</em>
</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>Beca didn’t exactly tell Chloe that she was moving to Atlanta. It was Chloe’s fourth and final year of college. She didn’t want to be a distraction. </p><p> </p><p>She also didn’t want to <em> not </em> be a distraction, either. The concept of Chloe not being bothered or in any way interested in Beca’s presence hurt more than just being in the same city, on the same campus as the first and only person she’d ever loved.</p><p> </p><p>She’d loved Chloe.</p><p> </p><p>She still loved Chloe.</p><p> </p><p>She’d never told her. They’d never said those words to each other. Beca wasn’t sure she even understood what being in love meant when they were dating, but four years later she did. She knew what they had was special, even as kids.</p><p> </p><p>It was a Wednesday precisely 22 days after Beca arrived on Chloe’s campus when their paths finally crossed.</p><p> </p><p>It happened, of all places, in the showers of Baker Hall. Beca had been singing to herself and Chloe had been a few stalls away and not only heard her but recognized her voice. She’d been so excited she’d literally burst right into Beca’s shower, causing Beca to have a minor heart attack from panic and embarrassment.</p><p> </p><p>“Beca?!” she’d said as she whipped aside the shower curtain. “You’re here?!”</p><p> </p><p>“Dude!” Beca had shrieked as she tried to figure out how to cover herself. “What are you doing?!”</p><p> </p><p>Beca would have been lying if she’d said she wasn’t waiting for—hoping for, even—something like that to happen. She didn’t expect it to happen <em> quite </em> the way it did but in hindsight, it was fitting. A metaphor for the way Chloe had burst into her life uninvited the first time, too.</p><p> </p><p>After the initial shock, and Beca barely stopping Chloe from hugging her while they were both naked, they’d made plans to meet up for dinner at a café just off-campus. Specifically, Chloe had asked Beca if she wanted to go to dinner, and Beca had accepted while her heart pounded in her chest.</p><p> </p><p>It had been terrifying and thrilling at the same time to be in Chloe’s orbit again. To feel that excitement when Chloe walked up to the booth Beca was sitting in and waited for Beca to stand up so Chloe could hug her.</p><p> </p><p>It felt so good to be in her arms again; she hadn’t hugged Chloe in nearly three years.</p><p> </p><p>“I missed you,” Chloe said, the hug going on far longer than socially normal until they finally parted and slid into opposite sides of the booth. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming here?” she’d asked.</p><p> </p><p>Beca had shrugged and said, “I don’t know.” She was lying; she knew exactly why. She didn’t want to be disappointed with whatever Chloe’s response to such information would be.</p><p> </p><p>“You look good,” she’d said to Beca, making her blush nearly as much as she had earlier in the shower. “You’re all grown up.” She winked as she said it.</p><p> </p><p>“Ew,” Beca muttered while fighting a smile.</p><p> </p><p>“‘Ew’?” Chloe said with amusement. “You didn’t use to think I was ‘ew.’ Remember when you got grounded when your mom saw your hickey?”</p><p> </p><p>Beca laughed at the memory. “All too well.”</p><p> </p><p>Chloe laughed, too, and a comfortable silence fell between them. They were just looking at each other; Beca could feel Chloe taking her in the same way Beca was updating the way she’d remembered Chloe’s face for so long. Her features were more defined now, the youthful softness giving way to a sharpened jawline and cheekbones. Her hair was a lighter shade of red than it had been in high school. The strong arms that had held Beca so many times looked even stronger now. And her eyes...they made Beca feel like she was home.</p><p> </p><p>Chloe looked...<em> so </em> good.</p><p> </p><p>“So,” Chloe said.</p><p> </p><p>Beca smiled. “So?”</p><p> </p><p>“Tell me what I’ve missed.”</p><p> </p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p> </p><p>Chloe gave a shy kind of shrug. “I haven’t really met adult Beca yet.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m 18, not 40.”</p><p> </p><p>“Bec,” Chloe said as she reached across the table between them, having to lean further so she could snag Beca’s hand. She held it, their entwined fingers resting in the middle of the table. “Everything’s changed. For both of us. I missed you so much. I just want to know you better, now.”</p><p> </p><p>Beca nodded and started to share, beginning with the parts of her sophomore year at Eisenhower that she’d kept from Chloe at the time as their friendship began to fade.</p><p> </p><p>They lost track of time. It wasn’t until their server politely and apologetically informed them that his shift was ending, if they would mind paying the check so he could get his tip, that she realized they’d been there nearly four hours.</p><p> </p><p>“Maybe we should get going,” Chloe said as she opened her wallet and insisted on paying, pushing Beca’s offered cash back toward her.</p><p> </p><p>Beca hesitated for a few seconds before nodding. “Yeah. Maybe we should.”</p><p> </p><p>Chloe seemed disappointed in the agreement with her own idea but gathered her personal things nonetheless. They were standing on the sidewalk in front of the café when she said, “I’m not ready for tonight to be over.”</p><p> </p><p>Beca looked at her and the way she was looking up at the dark night sky, and she was reminded of that night they’d kissed in the rain. And she couldn’t shake the thought that the stars she gazed upon had nothing on the way Chloe’s eyes sparkled. “Me, neither.”</p><p> </p><p>Chloe glanced at her and smiled as she took Beca’s hand up in hers once again. “Come on. I know a place we can go.”</p><p> </p><p>It was hard not to fall in love with Choe again at that moment. It felt like it always did with her as they walked along the street until Chloe was steering them into a park until they were standing at the bottom of a ladder leading to the top of a playground slide.</p><p> </p><p>“No,” Beca said with a crooked smile. “Seriously?”</p><p> </p><p>“Totes serious,” Chloe winked and stepped aside to let Beca climb first.</p><p> </p><p>Chloe kissed her while they sat at the top of that slide. A new slide, in a new city, as new people. But the same people. The same hearts. And as Chloe pulled her in closer until she was guiding Beca to sit astride her lap, something that made Beca feel like she was on fire, Beca felt it all begin again.</p><hr/><p>
  <em> <strong>To be continued</strong> </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>
  <em>1989</em>
</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>
  <span>Beca wondered if she should be worried that she and Chloe fell back together as quickly and easily as they did.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They still had so much unspoken between them, a blank space in their timelines that neither knew about. Beca didn’t know about the people Chloe probably dated. Chloe didn’t know Beca hadn’t dated anyone, and she definitely didn’t know the reason why.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But something about being thrown back together (or intentionally placed in the same small geographical location together) made all of that feel unimportant. It didn’t matter what happened in the time they were apart. What mattered was their time together then and their time together now.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was at Chloe’s parents’ house, when they were both home together over Christmas break, that two other firsts finally happened.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I love you,” Chloe whispered between shared kisses on the couch in the basement. It had been their main makeout spot in high school and it served them as well now as it did then. “I’ve always loved you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Beca could feel tears on her own cheeks and her chest hurt how tight it became with emotion as she tried to catch her breath with the way Chloe was kissing her more and more urgently.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I love you, too,” she answered as Chloe tried, so so gently, to ease Beca onto her back only for Beca to resist. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sorry,” Chloe had said as she slowed down how quickly her lips were moving along Beca’s neck.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, just…” Beca took a deep breath and tried to ground herself with the way Chloe’s skin felt, the soft, strong warmth of her lower back beneath her hands where they’d somehow ended up under the edge of Chloe’s shirt. “Can we go to your room?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chloe’s kisses slowed to a full stop with that and she lifted her head to meet Beca’s eyes. “Are you sure?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Beca nodded. “Yeah, just...slow. Okay?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chloe nodded, too, and kissed her soundly. Something about her posture changed and Beca pulled back out of curiosity.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing?” she asked as she watched Chloe grab the Polaroid camera they’d been playing with earlier.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Capturing a moment. Come here,” Chloe said as she touched Beca’s chin to bring her in for another kiss. A flash went off a few seconds later. It startled Beca; she’s already forgotten about the camera. “Can’t wait to see how it turns out,” Chloe said as she set the camera down, though kept the printed photo in-hand as she stood up. “Join me?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Beca smiled and let Chloe help her off the couch and into another kiss before they were winding their way up the stairs to Chloe’s second-floor bedroom.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <em>
    <strong>To be continued</strong>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>
  <em>reputation</em>
</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/>
<p>
  <span>Beca spent four years in college learning three things: music theory and audio tech, how to write a cappella vocal arrangements, and that you have to learn to like your girlfriend in addition to loving them.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Not that she didn’t like Chloe. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Of course</span>
  </em>
  <span> she liked Chloe.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She just hadn’t realized how delicate a relationship could be until things like miscommunication or a forgotten important date on the calendar led to hurt feelings and arguments. Or how kept secrets, while not malicious, could make someone feel unworthy of that part of her life.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>At the time, she just didn’t want to upset Chloe who was already having a breakdown over their Bellas’ future being in peril by telling her she scored her dream internship. She knew Chloe would get mad that Beca wasn’t devoting every free waking moment of her life to developing their come-back-and-win strategy like Chloe was.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She didn’t expect it to backfire and blow up and lead to Chloe and her blowing up at one another about ambitions and priorities and storming off in opposite directions.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She also didn’t know how much courage it would take to knock on Chloe’s bedroom door—three days later—and apologize, both for keeping something from her and for the things she said when they were fighting. Chloe had stared at her, arms crossed and jaw set tightly for several minutes while she rambled and apologized and did her best to not make excuses for her behavior.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t want us to give each other the silent treatment ever again,” she’d finished with while struggling not to cry. “I hate it. I really miss you.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Finally, Chloe had cracked the tiniest of smiles and opened her arms and said, “Okay, I forgive you. And I’m sorry for being so controlling lately that you felt like you couldn’t share something important in your life with me.” The three days apart felt like three years and Beca had melted into her embrace.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Something about that, about the way being held by Chloe and holding her in return making Beca feel like a whole person, made her remember the first day they met and the first time they were girlfriends. Beca’s schoolgirl crush that was surprisingly </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> one-sided. The nights spent in the empty campus pool and on the roof of the drama department’s building that housed many a small group gathering of a cappella nerds drinking beer out of plastic cups.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>That all at once, Chloe, just Chloe, was enough.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>To be continued</strong>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>
  <em>Lover</em>
</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/>
<p>
  <span>Beca has a lot of favorite memories when it comes to Chloe. Waking up in the middle of the night only to drift back asleep, lulled by the sound of Chloe sleeping next to her. Stealing the book Chloe’s reading off her nightstand to read it whenever she wasn’t so they could talk about it together. Painting Chloe’s little brother’s bedroom over Spring Break and it devolving into a paint fight that left Beca finding colors in places she couldn’t understand for several days. The night Chloe dared her trespass at the campus pool when it was far too cold to be thinking about swimming but somehow ending up in the water with her anyway.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She’s fond of the bittersweet memories as well. How much she cried when they broke up when she was 16 and Chloe moved away.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>How painful the years apart were while Beca tried in vain to get over her and seeing Chloe’s photos with other people on social media; whether or not they were dating wasn’t always clear, but all Beca could think about how Chloe belonged with her, not whomever those people were.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>How often her mind slipped back to that December when she and Chloe exchanged their first I love yous and so much more.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The day Chloe walked into her shower and back into her life to have dinner at that cafe which ended up being a date. How quickly Beca took down the walls she’d built to protect herself after being hurt, to let Chloe back in as Chloe held the door to the restaurant to walk Beca to a park and kiss her again.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>How Beca couldn’t help but think about how this love came back to her like a life that came back from the dead. How something about that was a sign they were meant to be. They’d let one another go and found their way back to one another. Maybe with a little help by Beca dropping herself into Chloe’s vicinity, but there was no way to know when they would reunite or how it would go, let alone that they would discover they were drawn to each other as much as adults as they had been as teenagers.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Beca learned that without a doubt Chloe was The One. She didn’t quite know what that meant in college either, just that as young adults, she recognized that what they had wasn’t a simple teen romance. That the way her heart and stomach fluttered every time Chloe touched her hand or so much as glanced in her direction meant something. Something big.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It was hard to see Chloe through the tears welling in her eyes, the years of their lives, both together and apart, flashing through her memory and she rolled her eyes while trying to delicately brush them away without ruining her makeup. She wanted to see Chloe clearly and have her voice be steady as she said, “I do.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>The End</strong>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
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